I am NOT a doctor, dietician or expert. Do I know everything there is to know about diabetes? Heck no, but I do know what it’s like to live with it.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Foods on Friday

Taking a cue from Adam Brown's recent post, write a post documenting what you
eat in a day! Feel free to add links to recommended
recipes/shops/whatever. Make it an ideal day or a come-as-you-are day –
no judgments either way.

Oh goodie, we get to talk about
food! One of my favorite things. We’ve already established that I am eating a
low-carb diet these days. I really thought I’d miss pasta, potatoes and bread
(and I did in the beginning!) but I’ve managed to find foods that are delicious
and satisfying and most times I don’t even miss the carbs. I meant to write
this yesterday and document what I ate, but life got in the way. So, I’m going
to show you what a typical food day is like for me.

Breakfast

Coffee. More coffee. Did I
mention coffee? Actually, I was consuming WAY too much coffee so I’ve cut back.
I try to keep it at 2 cups in the morning but sometimes it’s 3.

Leftovers are my favorite thing
to eat for breakfast. Seriously! A serving of whatever I can find in the fridge
will fit the bill nicely. If that is lacking, I might make some egg salad with
2 boiled eggs, mayo and bacon crumbles. I’ll eat it right out of the bowl or
make it into a sandwich with flax meal bread (which I’ll talk more about in a
bit.)

Lunch

Leftovers. Are you beginning to
see a trend here? One thing I’ve discovered is that I’m a rather lazy eater.
This could have something to do with my previous penchant for fast, unhealthy
foods. I’m just not fond of taking time to fix food for myself. It’s improving
though.

I had given up sandwiches long
ago because of the bread. I tried making almond flour bread and had convinced
myself that it was good…but it really wasn’t that great. Too dry and hard to
swallow if the bite was on the bigger side. Don’t despair, I’ve found the
answer: Flax meal bread. This bread is made in the microwave and Ray and I like
it. It’s bready. It’s low-carb. It’s easy. I’m normally scrupulous about
crediting the person/website where I got any recipe I share, but I neglected to
document this one. When I Googled to try and find it, I found tons of very
similar recipes so it’s out there in a variety of forms. Sorry to whomever I
got this from but I’m sharing it anyway, cuz it’s good and I can eat sandwiches
again.

In a small bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Add
flax meal and baking powder. Stir to combine. Add slightly beaten egg and stir
until all ingredients are incorporated. Coat a microwave safe container with
cooking spray. (I use a 6” diameter glass bowl. This makes a nice sized “bun”.)
Spoon the mix into the container and spread it evenly. Cook in the microwave
for 1 minute and 20 seconds. Done!

I prefer to take it out of the bowl and let it cool
slightly before use. Blotting the bottom with a paper towel helps remove the
condensation. This bread will slice horizontally allowing you to make a
sandwich or use it for a burger bun.

An online recipe calculator puts this bread at 18
grams of carbs but with 16 grams of fiber, making this a nice, low-carb bread
option.

I’ve also made these buns ahead and kept them in the
fridge for easier use, but honestly, they are so quick and easy to make that it
isn’t necessary. They make great burger buns too. Ray says they can be a wee
bit “greasy”, I guess because of the butter, but that doesn’t stop him from
eating them! Fill with whatever floats your boat: tuna salad, leftover chicken
etc. I hope someone finds these helpful.

Dinner

I couldn’t choose between my two favorite dinners so I’m
going to give you both: Zoodles and baked salmon with asparagus. Yum!

Zoodles:

I bought a spiralizer and I love it! My only complaint is
that my wrists get pretty tired by the time I’m done and I always have these
weird bits that I have to slice up. Someday I may cave in and buy one with a
crank handle. I mainly use it to make zucchini noodles to replace the pasta we
used to eat. Here is my favorite Zoodle recipe:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the tomatoes in
a baking tray and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Toss to combine
thoroughly and season generously with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven
for 20 minutes. Set aside once done (they’ll be used in the pasta).

Meanwhile...

Over medium-high heat, melt coconut oil (or whatever
you use) in a large frying pan. Cook onions until soft. Add garlic and
cook for 1 minute. Add your spiralized zoodles, stirring and cooking until
the noodles begin to soften. (sometimes I throw a lid on it and let them
cook)

Add the bacon bits. If things seem “dry”, you might
drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top. Cook a few minutes more.

Add the spinach, stirring it in until it wilts.

Add the tomatoes that you roasted in step 1 and pepper
flakes to taste. Stir it all up into a pile of amazing goodness. Can be
served with parmesan cheese if you like.

Baked Salmon with asparagus

There isn’t really a recipe for this
one. I buy frozen Alaskan wild-caught salmon at Sam’s Club. Follow the
directions on whatever you buy, but basically: Thaw the salmon. Preheat oven to
375 degrees (again, follow your salmon package directions). Line a cookie sheet
with foil and place the salmon, skin side down, in the middle. Salt and pepper
on top. Arrange prepared asparagus around the salmon, drizzle with olive oil
and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for approx.. 20 minutes. Done and delicious!
I make a lemon crema sauce by adding maybe 1 tsp of lemon juice and a sprinkle
of salt to approx.. ½ cup of sour cream.

That pretty much shows you what
I might eat in a day. Portion size is important! 3 oz of salmon and 10
asparagus spears for dinner. 1 1/2 cups of zoodles will satisfy me. I snack
throughout the day on things I make myself or nuts or mini peppers. This shows
you an “ideal” day for me. There are definitely some that aren’t as stellar,
when I eat something that is outside my plan, but don’t we all?

9 comments:

Your zoodles are way fancier than mine! I have ordered a crank spiralizer for Minnesota and it comes with 4 blades. The cookbook I mentioned in my post definitely uses blades that I don't have with the GEFU.

Some day I need to stretch my low carb horizons to include things like flax meal, etc. Maybe I'll get brave and try your microwave bread.

Follow-up comment. I just went to the store and bought flax meal and will have some microwave bread for dinner. I wonder what I'll do with my insulin dose. Maybe just guess and that's what I do most of the time anyway.

Some really creative meal ideas here. I'll definitely have to give that flax seed bread a go - it looks super easy. And there's nothing wrong with leftovers either - they make lunchtimes a lot easier for me!

I too am trying to eat low carb. spiralizers are great for lots of different vegetables. one of my favorites for pasta besides zucchini iskohlrabi. and as far as bread goes I make a small loaf from this sitehttp://www.thelondoner.me/2014/03/mums-low-carb-bread.html. it is really quite good. she has a few low carb dishes made with zoodles including thai and Italian. yummy!

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